


Under Your Guard

by IraBragi



Series: The Pancake 'Verse [3]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Kono is awesome, M/M, Relationships are hard work, Steve is bad at feelings and Danny isn't much better, they work it out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 12:49:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6520435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IraBragi/pseuds/IraBragi





	Under Your Guard

     Fighting always came easy to Danny. Whether it was with fists or with words he learned early how to always have a comeback and never let the other person know when they scored a hit. As he grew up he also learned that using many words can be as useful at hiding things as keeping silent. It didn't matter if it was at his precinct, on the street chasing down a lead, or at home with Rachel, Danny's constant stream of chatter was always his first line of defense.

     As things turned ugly with Rachel the words became more pointed and the insults became verbal knifes that left them both bleeding and furious enough to go another round. Eventually Rachel got tired of it and Danny found himself on an island; surrounded by ocean and drowning in his anger and pain. Then Steve McGarrett burst into his crime scene and his world turned upside down once again.

     Despite his reputation for being argumentative and difficult, Danny did not usually go around punching fellow officers. Not even when they were as obnoxious and pig headed (not to mention annoyingly good looking) as his new partner. Particularly not officers who were apparently now his _boss_ as well as his partner. But Steve managed to drag the worst out of Danny just by existing.

     The man got him _shot_ for goodness sakes. In retrospect laying into Steve at the crime scene may not have been the best time to air his feelings on the matter but honestly the man was a loose cannon. He had the single minded focus of a man on a suicide mission and Danny had no intention of being pulled into that. He had a daughter and Grace needed her Danno. So he did what he always did when he was terrified – he yelled and ranted and got up in Steve's face. But when Steve twisted his arm behind his back to shut him up that changed the rules of the game.

     Danny had been plenty scared and angry but now he was furious. If his new partner was willing to force them to work together and risk both their lives that was bad enough, but for him to physically overpower Danny just to shut him up meant that it was over between them. Danny had been in enough street fights to know that the most dangerous opponent wasn't the guy in front of you yelling and throwing punches it was the one who was dead quiet and had a knife you never saw coming.

     So in that instant Danny decided that he would take his swing at Steve's (ridiculously handsome) jaw and then it would be over. Whatever it took he was done with the maniac SEAL.

     Then Steve managed to surprise him again. He took the punch and actually had the decency to look embarrassed with himself. Later when they were in Danny's car (that Steve was somehow driving) he stayed quiet while Danny continued his earlier rant and looked at Danny like he couldn't quite believe that he was still there.

     For a long time Danny would watch Steve out of the corner of his eye when they were really going at it, wondering if this was the time that his partner would get tired of his mouth and snap. Steve never did. At some point the fighting between them became less about who won and turned into something almost comfortable.

     Then Danny found himself in a hospital room watching Steve and Grace sleep and he realized that, arguments and all, Steve had wormed his way completely and utterly into his heart.

     By the time they decided to move in together officially, Danny had been practically living at Steve's for so long that Chin and Kono were actually surprised when beers were offered as a bribe for helping move the rest of Danny's stuff one Saturday.

     Grace was thrilled with the move. Steve let her pick the color of her new room and Danny explained a hundred times that no matter where he lived she would always have a place. Unfortunately neither loving each other or sleeping together was a magic solution for the stress life and the realities of a relationship.

     Three weeks later Danny and Steve got into their first real argument since moving in together (at this point no one counted their near constant verbal sparing as anything other than just the way they communicated. Although Kono had a personal theory that it was their own weird version of foreplay.)

     The fight started about nothing important but quickly became a dumping grounds for accumulated insecurities and frustrations. The words became meaner and the voices louder.

     “I can't deal with you! And we are so not doing this here, not now with Grace in the house!” Danny finally hissed and stomped upstairs. He went to Grace's room and breathed a sigh of relief that she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Somewhat calmer but still angry he made his way to the master bedroom and got ready for bed. At some point in the night he rolled over and realized that Steve was not in bed with him. Danny muttered something about “insane SEALs who didn't think they needed anyone” and assumed that the other man was just angry enough to sleep on the couch. But when the alarm clock rang Steve was tucked in beside him with an arm around his waist.

     “I'm sorry about last night” Steve whispered in his ear.

     “What? What time's it?” Danny quarried not even half awake. “Why aren't you doing your super SEAL swim thing?”

     “I thought I could maybe skip my swim for one day and make it up to you.” Danny was about to reply but Steve pressed their lips together and the words evaporated somewhere between his brain and mouth. After that thinking about anything was rather difficult what with Steve pressed up against him and doing _things_.

     It wasn't until much later, after a shower that got derailed and ended up making them late to drop Grace off at school and getting a case (one that promised to give Steve ample chances to play rambo,) that Danny notice that Steve was unusually quiet. In stead of their normal banter he would just nod or even worse agree with Danny.

     “Are you still pissed off with me?” Danny asked after the third time Steve ignored a snarky comment about his overwhelming need to keep an arsenal in the trunk. (This was after a well placed flash bang grenade and one man SEAL team, once again, resolved the situation before SWAT could get to the house where the suspect was holed up.)

     “Pissed off at you for what?” Steve fiddled with the radio dial because, for some strange reason Danny was actually driving his car today. He wasn't quite sure how that had happened.

     “You know exactly what. We got into it last night and you spend half the night god-only-knows-where, you skip your swim – which by the way I am not complaining about – then today you hardly speak to me. On top of that I am actually driving my own car so yeah, something is definitely wrong with a capital W.”

     “Nothing is wrong, I already said sorry for last night.” Steve was making his “why is this still an issue” face. That face always pissed Danny off. “Well for one thing you weren't the only one who was a jerk last night.” Danny shot back, “So why are you the only one apologizing? Also how the hell do you manage to argue with me and drive and not crash? Oh, let me guess, it's CLASSIFIED!” That actually did pull a smile out of Steve and Danny relaxed a little bit until he heard the next words out if his mouth.

     “You know I'd never make you move out right?”

     “What?” completely forgetting the road Danny turned to look at Steve, trying to figure out what was going on in his head. Steve had gotten better with communication but his default was still to hid it all away inside and soldier on. Right now the look on Steve's face was worried and maybe a little scared.

     “What I said was that I'd never make you move out. It's your house now too. Also, LOOK OUT FOR THE!” Danny snapped his attention back to the road and managed to swerve away from the mailbox that the car was drifting towards.

     They got back to headquarters and spent the next several hours doing paperwork and finishing up loose ends. By the time they got home everyone was exhausted and the weirdness of earlier was pushed to the back burner.

(Three days later)

     NOT fighting should shouldn't be a problem but it was quickly turning into one:

“Did the washing machine eat all your real pants and only leave you cargo pants?”

“You know that's not what happened.”

 

“Why did you do that, are you insane!?”

“Probably, I'm sorry”

 

“Why are you doing paperwork!?”

“Um, It's my job.”

“No it isn't! It's my job to do your paperwork and then bitch at you for making me!”

“I'm not not sure how to win in this situation.”

     Kono made the mistake of pulling Danny aside and asked him what was going on and receive a full on rant the about “stupid, emotionally constipated, idiots who always wore cargo pants and horded grenades.”

     She took it in stride and mildly pointed out that, “brah yelling insults at bossman, while quite entertaining, may not be the healthiest form of communication.” Danny categorically refused to admit that “telling the truth was the same as yelling insults!” and stomped off. Chin watched the whole exchange with a worried look and said nothing.

     Over the next two days it went from bad to worse. Danny stopped insulting Steve, in fact he more or less stopped talking to him at all. He took every opportunity to pair up with Chin or Kono, or hole up in his office doing frightening amounts of paperwork. Steve was quiet, eyes tight with worry, and alternated between hovering outside Danny's office and staying away from HQ all together. Thankfully they didn't get any new cases.

     On Friday afternoon Steve pulled Kono aside and asked for help. “If Danny asks could you please tell him that I had a meeting with the Governor? Also, can you give me a text when he heads home for the evening?”

     “Sure thing bossman. Just – talk with him ok? I know Danny can be, well Danny, but you know he loves you right?”

     Steve nodded, “I know. Thanks.” and was gone.

     On the drive home Steve stopped by the store and picked up a 6 pack of Longboards and some steaks. Once he got home he put the beer in the fridge and started working on mashed potatoes and a salad. He figured that whenever Danny got in he could use the steaks as an excuse to get them outside and hopefully talking.

     Two hours later the side dishes were finished and in the fridge and Steve had moved to the couch with a beer. Finally he got a text from Kono - “I need to head home, Danny is still in his office and refuses to budge. Good luck. - Steve bit back curses and grabbed his keys. Thankful now that he had only had one beer, he drove back to the office. This needed to end now and if Danny was going to be stubborn and refuse to come home than he would just have to go to him. He just hoped that Danny still though of the house as his home because Steve didn't think he could stand to stay there anymore without his crazy, argumentative, wonderful partner.

     By the time he got back to HQ the building was deserted and the only light was coming from his own office. He walked in and found Danny sitting on the couch, his head was down and his shoulders were hunched over as if everything weighed to much to move. When he heard Steve come in Danny swiped his hands over his face and pinned him with a death glare.

     “Come back to ignore me more have you?”

     Steve was at a loss for words, “It is my office” was the best he could manage.

     Danny got up, “Well I'll let you have it then. I'm going to spend the weekend with a friend so don't worry about me.” and started to the door. Steve's hand flashed out to grab him, to make him stay and talk, then snatched it back. Manhandling would only make this worse, and on top of that Danny had the hard edge to his voice of a man ready to start hitting.

     “Please Danno, can we just talk for a minute? Then you can go if you want, or you can go back to the house and I'll crash somewhere else. Please?”

     Danny snorted at that, “Knowing you you'd go camp in the jungle somewhere and get yourself killed by a boar.”

     “I'd never! Didn't you hear the talk I gave to the Aloha Girls? I know how to defend myself.”

     “Trust you Steve to think that reminding me of the time you turned a talk on survival meant for 10 year old girls into a lesson in knife throwing will make me less mad at you.” but his voice was just a bit less strained.

     Steve sat down on the couch giving Danny plenty of room to decide where he wanted to sit. He ended up perched on Steve's desk facing him.

     “So,” Steve started, “what's the matter?” The only response that got was Danny rolling his eyes, so Steve tried again. “Look, obviously something is wrong, and I'm sure it's my fault somehow so can you just tell me what's the matter?”

     “You tell me. We get into an argument and then the next morning you keep apologizing like it's all you fault. Which by the way it wasn't 100 percent. 70 percent maybe, but I'm well aware that I can be a dick too. Then then you just stop talking to me and completely shut me out. So I'm not sure, which is it? Are you mad or is it all your fault?”

     It occurs to Steve that it's probably a little pitiful how much he had missed Danny ranting at him. “Shut you out! I was trying to be nice to you! I was trying to not argue. I thought that was the right thing to do!”

     “No Steve that is not the right thing to do. Look I don't know how your family handled arguments but you can't just paper them over and pretend they didn't happen. Also, agreeing with everything I say is a sure fire way to piss me off not avoid more arguments. But you are a smart guy and I'm pretty sure you already knew that, so I'm going to ask you again – what is really going on?”

     Danny could talk all day long but what most people didn't realize was that he could also shut up and wait the other guy out. Steve had a sudden flash of empathy for the perps that Danny interrogated. He swallowed hard and started talking.

     “That night we started fighting, after you went up to check on Grace I waited until you had gone to the bedroom and I went up to say goodnight to her.”

     “What” Danny cut in “She was fast asleep when I checked on her.”

     “Well she wasn't when I did. She was sitting up in her bed and she looked about equal parts mad and scared.” Steve looked down at his hands miserably, anything to avoid looking at Danny.

     “She asked me why we were fighting and if you were going to have to move out again. I tried to tell her that everything was fine and we weren't really upset with each other but she just kept shaking her head. Finally she looked at me and said, and I quote: “Danno really loves you please don't make him leave” so yeah I went for a run. I can't stand hurting you and I'd rather die than hurt Grace. I though it would be simple, we just needed to not fight.

     Also, I love you and I'd never make you move out. For all you the most annoying person on planet earth sometimes, I don't think I could stand to live alone in that house without you and Grace in it. You two are my life and I'm sorry I botched making up and did nothing but make it worse.”

    “Oh” and then Steve was getting bowled over and kissed within an inch of his life.

     “I'm sorry too” Danny whispered much, much later. “I was a jerk and I should have realized that something was wrong and not just gotten all hurt by how you were acting. When things with Rachel and I got really bad, right before the divorce, that's how I knew it was over. She just stopped talking to me. I was so scared that you were doing the same. All I could think was that there must be something broken about me that I ruin every good thing I touch. Because I don't think I could live without you either babe. Even if you are an annoying neanderthal who hordes grenades!”

 

     “I'll talk to Grace about the fight. Let her know that everything is ok.” Steve pulled himself up on his elbow to look at Danny. It was really late, or early depending how you look at it, and they had been curled up together in their bed.

     “You don't have to. We can do better about keeping our disagreements away from her.”

     “No Steve, I mean yes we shouldn’t fight in front of her, but disagreements happen. It's part of a relationship. If anything what she needs to see is that we can fight and not leave each other like her mother and I did.”

     “Ok, would it be alright if I was there when you talk to her?”

     “Well I assumed that you would be the one making pancakes so yeah.” They both laughed at that and Steve burrowed his face closer to Danny's back. For the first time in a long time he felt like everything was going to be alright.


End file.
